After losing at Knoxville, UK has fallen from number 4 to number 6 in the AP Poll. The last time UK was ranked number 6, the Cats went to Florida and beat the Gators 71-70 on March 7, 2020. A few days later, the whole sports world shut down for COVID.
In 1992, UK was ranked number 6 going into the NCAA Tournament. The Cats beat Old Dominion 88-69, then beat Iowa State 106-98, then beat UMass 87-77, before losing 104-103 to Duke in overtime.
Murray State has moved up to number 19 in the AP Poll.
Since today was 02/22/22, folks on Twitter were talking about the best number 22 to play for Kentucky. I was glad to see that Truman Claytor got a lot of support, with some folks pointing out that he was the only number 22 to win a championship.
ReplyDeleteHere are my favorite number 22's for UK, in order:
ReplyDeleteTruman Claytor
Alex Poythress
Patrick Sparks
Reid Travis
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
There is no 22 on this year's team.
Here are the starters for this year:
ReplyDelete2: Sahvir Wheeler
3: TyTy Washington
12: Keion Brooks
31: Kellan Grady
34: Oscar Tshiebwe
Now, if you put together a UK All-Star lineup with those numbers, it would look like this:
ReplyDelete2: Aaron Harrison
3: Bam Adebayo (yes, over King Rex)
12: Karl-Anthony Towns
31: Sam Bowie
34: Kenny Walker
That's a pretty good team.
You'd probably need to have at least one more guard. Davion Mintz wears number 10, so you could bring in Dirk Minniefield or Keith Bogans. And Jacob Toppin wears number 0, so you could bring in De'Aaron Fox. If you added those guys to the lineup above, I'm pretty sure you would have a very easy season.
DeleteYou don't have this issue if you don't worry about canceling Rex Chapman.
DeleteIn what will probably be its last season in the Ohio Valley Conference, the Murray State Racers cap an 18-0 run through the league. The Racers beat SEMO in Cape Girardeau 70-68 to end the regular season. Murray State is 28-2 overall, and 18-0 in the OVC. They will now head to Evansville for the OVC Tournament, and my guess is that a significant proportion of the Jackson Purchase will go up there as well.
ReplyDeleteKentucky loses at Arkansas 75-73. Auburn loses at Tennessee 67-62. Here is a list of all the games that the top 4 teams in the SEC have played against each other (home teams listed first):
ReplyDelete01/15: Kentucky 107 - 79 Tennessee
01/22: Auburn 80 - 71 Kentucky
02/08: Arkansas 80 - 76 Auburn (OT)
02/15: Tennessee 76 - 63 Kentucky
02/19: Arkansas 58 - 48 Tennessee
02/26: Arkansas 75 - 73 Kentucky
02/26: Tennessee 67 - 62 Auburn
As you will see, the home team has won every time. In fact, home teams have won 64 percent of the time in the SEC, the highest percentage of any conference in D-1. UK was very unfortunate that its only games against Auburn and Arkansas were both on the road. On the other hand, Arkansas has been lucky that it has yet to play one of the other SEC powers away from home.
The top of the SEC now looks like this:
ReplyDelete10. Auburn: 13-3
3. Kentucky: 12-4
11. Tennessee: 12-4
19. Arkansas: 12-4
On the other hand, Wheeler and Washington got through the game without being injured, which has been unusual on the road in SEC play.
ReplyDeleteUK's last two regular season games are home to Ole Miss and at Florida.
ReplyDeleteWild day in college basketball so far, with Auburn, Kansas, Kentucky, Purdue, and Texas Tech all losing on the road. Now Gonzaga trails Saint Mary's 31-16 with 4:06 left in the first half.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Duke went to Syracuse and rolled, 97 to 72. That moves Duke up to number 5 on Ken Pom. I think Duke is the best team in the country, and I think they'll prove this in the tournament.
ReplyDeleteDuke played Kentucky in the first game of the year, and the Cats led 48-47 with 15:38 left in the game. At that point, Duke outscored UK 22-6. No one else has made UK look that bad all year.
ReplyDeleteSaint Mary's leads Gonzaga 36-21 at the half. Very exciting to see a packed gym in California.
ReplyDelete